This is the season where the show finally stops explaining itself and starts paying you back. Season one spent its runtime dragging Tamaki through the shock of inheriting a destiny nobody warned her about, with Takuma showing up half-demon and half-annoyed to keep her breathing. Here the fights land harder, the guardians stop being a lineup of archetypes and start behaving like people with their own stakes, and the romance that was subtext gets to sit in the room and breathe. Be honest about the middle stretch, though: episodes two through nine coast, and the finale sprints through threads that deserved another three episodes. But if you came for Tamaki choosing her own footing instead of being escorted to it, that landing is worth the drift. Otome adaptation fans know exactly which scene they rewind, and it isn't a battle.

Tamaki and her guardians appear to have sealed away Onikirimaru, and she now begins to face her uncertain future as the new Tamayori princess. The victory does not last. The demon blood in Takuma's veins starts to overtake him, changing his body, and the bonds among her five guardians come under strain. All of them have sworn to give everything to keep her safe, yet there may be a traitor among them. Meanwhile the group Logos becomes active again. Her survival is far from certain, and she still has high school to deal with. This second season of the supernatural fantasy romance picks up after the first.